Reality Zero

Chapter 4

  An hour later, the four of them had boarded the captured ship and were met by Captain Moser.

  ‘Good morning, Captain. Let me introduce my team. I think you may have already met Lieutenant Angela Loughlin and Warrant Officer Dev Khan but I don’t think you’ve met WO Billy Hunt as yet. He joined us a few days ago and is on secondment from Galacticomm’ said the Commodore.

  ‘Welcome Commodore, Angela, Dev, Billy. Say, are you the Billy Hunt who found these things on Astraeus 5?’ said Captain Moser, looking at each of them in turn and shaking hands.

  ‘Erm, yeah, Captain, along with my counterpart from another reality, Will. Unfortunately, he seems to have reality-jumped again. Wish I knew where he was.’

  ‘Wow. Okay, folks. Let’s get to the bridge. I imagine you would like to have a look at the controls we found. I think you’ll find a few changes since you were last on board, Billy’ replied the impressed-looking Captain, who started in the direction of the bridge.

  The bridge was a hive of activity, with a number of men and women at consoles, with some lying on the floor peering into gaps in the panelling, some testing cables, some recording what they were finding and yet others moving about purposefully.

  ‘Commodore on the Bridge. Listen up everyone’ announced the Captain. ‘I’d also like to introduce Angela, Dev and Billy, who will be responsible for investigating the reality transfer device built into the Captain’s chair. As they’re new to the ship, you should help them out if they need any assistance or guidance. Billy’s the guy who found this tub.’

  The announcement was greeted by salutes to the Commodore from those that were able and by a variety of calls and waves from the rest of the crew, after which the Captain moved to sit in the Captain’s control chair. The Commodore and the others moved to stand to its side, so that they could get a better view of the controls. He slid the covering panel from the armrest, revealing the controls underneath. ‘Well, these are the controls. They only seem to work when the ship is powered up but stationary’ he said.

  The controls turned out to be two adjacent controls. The main control seemed to consist of a rotary dial, with an arrow marked on one side. At the bottom of the dial, in what, on an analogue clock, would be the six o’clock position, was the word HEJMO. Around the dial were the numbers 1 to 11, with the 1 to the left of the word HEJMO and 11 to the right of it. Beneath the dial was a large red button.

  ‘How do they work?’ asked Commodore Powell.

  ‘Quite simple, as it turns out, Ma’am. Just dial in the destination reality, and press the red button. To return, all we needed to do was find the position for this reality and again press the red button. It took a little while to figure out which position that was but it seems we’re number 3. Fortunately, the person who had been sitting in the chair when it was discovered had only moved the dial to number 4, so it was only a case of moving the dial one way or the other by one notch to return to our reality. We got lucky with the first attempt’ replied the Captain.

  ‘I imagine there was a lot of relief when you got back. I think it would be helpful if we have something that allows us to make sure we’re back here, just in case something should go wrong in another reality. I suggest we set up a low-powered beacon that we can listen out for when we think we’re back’ offered Dev.

  ‘When we check out the realities this thing can access, I suggest we park ourselves on Astraeus 5, so that we don’t, hopefully, attract attention to ourselves. If we keep our energy signature low, we ought to be able to pay each reality a visit without the locals being aware of our presence unless we want them to be. Is it worth our while taking a look to see if there are any other bases on the Astraeus equivalents and, if so, take a look to see if they’re also weaponed up?’ asked Billy.

  ‘Hmm. I don’t think we’re in a position to do that. We only have a few marines on board and we’re not crewed sufficiently to make full use of the weapons systems on the ships, so would struggle to defend ourselves if we were attacked. I think a stealth visit would be the best option. Take a look, see what we can learn and come back. Later, we can come back and search for any bases’ replied the Captain.

  ‘I agree. Before we go, I think we ought to offer everyone on board the option of not going, as this could prove a one-way trip. I doubt it but, in the circumstances, everyone should have the chance to opt out’ said the Commodore.

  ‘I’ll arrange that, Ma’am. I suggest we leave the other ship here on this occasion, so that, should the worst happen, the Admiral still has one ship to examine. I’ll ensure that all our records are sent to Columbus, so that everything we currently know is available.’

  ‘How long will that take to arrange?’ asked the Commodore.

  ‘Most of it has already been recorded and we can shuttle anyone off who doesn’t want to go pretty quickly. There are only twenty of us on board anyway, excluding yourselves, and I would be surprised if there was anyone who didn’t want to go. I would suggest that we ought to be ready to leave within half an hour or so.’

  Angela, Billy and Dev discussed whether one of them should remain on this occasion, just in case there was a problem and to make sure that, should they be unable to return, at least one of their number could continue with their investigations. Dev reluctantly agreed to remain in their reality, so left the ship with the two crew members who decided to remain in their home reality.